When I first began this blog eight years ago, it didn’t take me long to decide on a title. My life and teaching have always focused on Biblical principles. My desire was to share those principles and to apply them to what we experience in this trek through a sinful world. That’s how the name “Pondering Principles” came about. With that name, though, came a deep responsibility to remain true to the principles I believe the Lord has ordained. I’ve… Read more »
Another C. S. Lewis book that I read recently—for the first time—is Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. One section speaks directly to me with respect to a hard time I’m going through at the moment. We would like the world to be predictable, something we can manage according to our expectations. Lewis says we have to lay that expectation aside: But is it not plain that this predictable world . . . is not the world we live in?… Read more »
In the wake of the Trump triumph/impending disaster, a number of Christians have resorted to what is certainly a wonderful promise in the Scripture. It’s found in the book of Romans: I love that promise as much as anyone, but I’ve always been dismayed by comments about it that seem to overlook the condition mentioned therein: this is a promise “to those who love the Lord.” What I hear all too often is that this is a promise that no… Read more »
I toyed with the idea this morning of writing nothing but Scripture passages. I will get to those, but I have to say a few words as well. The Republican voters (and for the sake of brevity, I’ll just assume most were Republicans) have decided that a man who rejects nearly every line in past Republican platforms will be their nominee for president. Republican voters have concluded that morality, integrity, the rule of law, and the Constitution must be discarded… Read more »
Last Saturday, I wrote about how C. S. Lewis warned against what he called a type of “band-wagoning,” in which we can, at the expense of our principles, decide to become part of a system with which we say we disagree. He continues the discussion in Reflections on the Psalms with what he believes are more subtle forms of the problem that can easily deceive us. Many people have a very strong desire to meet celebrated or “important” people, including… Read more »
Did you ever have one of those days? You know the one I mean, when you wonder why you even try? When the best of intentions and the desire to make a difference doesn’t seem to make a difference at all? I had one of those days yesterday, and it might continue today. Evil abounds. What about God’s grace, which means the strength to withstand the evil? I don’t want to give in to the temptation not to care anymore…. Read more »
In Reflections on the Psalms, C. S. Lewis takes aim at people who jump on bandwagons for their own personal benefit. In a chapter he titled “Connivance,” he writes of those in ancient Judea “who fleeced their fellow-countrymen to get money for the occupying power in return for a fat percentage” of the take. He was, frankly, astounded by the attitude he witnessed in one young man who had studied at Oxford. The man had been an avowed socialist during… Read more »